The following is an interesting article written by John O’Hara, who was head of the Career Division at Dubai Women’s  College until 2005

Thanks to John for letting me include this on the site...Leigh

Teaching overseas

"Behind the veil of women’s education in the Emirates"

Education is well resourced and highly valued in the United Arab Emirates writes JOHN O’HARA

COMING to Dubai to teach is to confront familiar problems of learning, but in a different history and in a different climate, stepping from the air-conditioned airport into 40 degree heat. The country of the United Arab Emirates is just over 30 years old and comprises seven Emirates in different stages of development. At the post-secondary level, the Higher Colleges of Technology have been in existence only 14 years. Universities such as Zayed University are more recent still.

Primary and secondary schools are emerging from decades of rote learning. The society of Dubai – with its glittering architecture, affluent lifestyle, sophisticated communications and multicultural population –has developed from a relatively recent history of foreign rule over nomads, traders, fishermen and pearl divers. The local population make up only 8 per cent of the workforce, a proportion that is likely to decline. The schools, and post-secondary teaching institutions, prepare the local population for work and careers in a city that tops the league tables in the Middle East for access to information services, health, education, and lifestyle opportunities, but in a region that ranks among the lowest in the world.

The students at Dubai Women’s College wear their black abayas and shaylas over designer clothes. They are part of a global media culture just as students are in America or Australia. Increasingly they travel widely. More than 100 students from the college have visited overseas cities including Zurich, London, Melbourne, Budapest and Copenhagen during the past year on study programs.

These students carry laptops, study in teams, and work on industry related projects. They work with government departments, agencies, and private companies. They study information technology, business, health sciences, and communication technology. They will become teachers, practitioners, and managers. The students learn to manage their own learning. They make their own presentations, run their own events, and establish their own businesses as part of their learning. Teaching is in English and almost all entry students spend most of their first year in an intensive study of English, together with maths and computing skills.

Students go on to complete diplomas, higher diplomas and degrees. Increasingly employers demand higher qualifications. The challenge is to meet these demands, to improve the students’ research skills, and deepen their understanding of what they learn.

How is the experience of teaching different? For a start, because teaching is conducted in a second language, there are issues of competency and understanding among different students. Issues of information literacy become more important, as do questions of how to adapt models of teaching and learning, and resources. The library at Dubai Women’s College has become integrated into the teaching work of developing curricula and designing assessment tasks. The library has become less a collection of resources, and more an agency for assessing and supporting information literacy in the detailed preparation of courses and course materials.

There are plenty of gifted and motivated students, but also students for whom it is not necessary to work, and who do not see a career as part of their future. Or if they intend to work, only intend to work for the government, where there are limited hours, higher rates of pay, better security and pension arrangements, like work for the government used to be in other countries.

But many students want to go on to further education. A recent survey  of the Dubai Women’s College graduates in business found that 80 per cent of those surveyed wished to complete an MBA. Next year is the first year of enrolment in new degrees at the college in pharmacy and medical imaging. Thirty students who are working in the city’s hospitals have enrolled for the degree year. Most of them have indicated they wish to go on to a masters degree. The city’s first paramedical studies program begins this year as a joint venture between the police department and the Higher Colleges of Technology. That too is likely to become a degree program, as students look for greater degrees of specialisation.

Perhaps the most obvious difference in post-secondary education is the segregation of men and women. Dubai has separate men’s and women’s colleges in the higher education system. Zayed University has a campus for women in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi. For many families the security of a women’s campus is necessary for them to allow their daughters to enroll in higher education.

But the more inflexible rules and forms of education are beginning to change, partly under the influence of new and more flexible forms of educational delivery. A number of courses are now delivered by blended learning in which students attend some face-to-face classes, but study online, wherever they are and at whatever time suits them. Students stay in touch through email and chat sessions.

The original idea of a single, segregated campus is beginning to change. This year students in information technology and business will work with teachers from a site called "knowledge village", which is an association of educational institutions and private companies attached to "media city" and "internet city". These "cities" involve a concentration of local and international media, communication and IT companies. The students will work in teams on projects for industry, providing software training, website development and project management services. All of this is part of their undergraduate degree program. It requires a more flexible approach to the timetable, to the curriculum and to the idea of men and women working together.

Student learning throughout the higher colleges of technology is now linked to graduate outcomes. These outcomes specify, not what should be taught, but the qualities students should develop as they learn. These outcomes relate to critical thinking, global awareness, information literacy and information technology, teamwork, leadership and vocational competencies. Where the students are strongest is in their IT skills, their instincts for business, their practical approach to problem solving, their confidence and good humour. All these qualities are evident in their international trips, where they shatter stereotypes of Arab women in their contacts with education and industry groups. Where learning is less strong is in research, and finding ways to contextualise so much of the more technical and practical activity. Students work in an oral culture, where statistics and written information can be hard to find, and where the systematic habits of recording and analysing data and communicating about it have been less developed. Students live and work in a culture that has not expected women to take leadership positions. The culture is changing, and one of the reasons is the support of the country’s leadership. This is reflected in the development of higher education institutions to provide women with the best opportunities for personal and professional development.

The late President of the UAE Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan has said "nothing could delight me more than to see a woman taking up her distinct position in society".

The appointment of the first UNESCO chair in the region in communication  technology and journalism for women this year will promote opportunities for women in journalism and media. The position will be at the Women’s College in Dubai, with a remit to improve the professional standard of journalism in the region, and to build new links with the international media.

Journalism lacks the sensational reporting style of western tabloids, and equally the serious critical perspectives of western broadsheets. Newspapers avoid criticism of government and foreign leaders or the religion of Islam. There is however a new emphasis on critical inquiry emerging through the television network coverage of regional and international events, especially through Al Jazeera and Abu Dhabi Television.

OVERALL first impressions are how different it is in every respect to live and to teach in a society that is liberal, tolerant, multicultural, but leadership devolves through tribal and family networks rather than through elected representation. How different it is to teach in an institution that has developed an advanced learning model and practice, but has no research tradition; to work with students who have a serious aptitude for practical and business-related activities, but less interest in theory, and less theory available to them.

At an institutional level, issues arise concerning the relationship of local and international accreditation of teaching programs. How does a pharmacy degree at Dubai Women’s College relate to the content and level of a pharmacy degree at the University of Sydney? How far should liberal arts courses make up a degree in communication technology? Underpinning these issues is the need for teachers to work on adapting curricula and courses and assessment tasks, both to respond to local students as they emerge from secondary schools, and to challenge them.

There is too the pleasure of teaching in a system that is well resourced, and highly valued. And above all, the sense that teaching in Dubai is contributing to a difference in society, in lifting educational standards, and creating new opportunities for Arab women.

John O’Hara was head of the Career Division at Dubai Women’s  College and a former Professor of Communication and Head of Communication at Charles Sturt University in Australia.